[ITA] Social network, smartphone, biotecnologie, 11 Settembre e finanziarizzazione dell’economia sono i cinque fattori fondamentali che hanno inciso maggiormente negli ultimi quindici anni nel rapporto tra tecnologie, società, scienze e cultura. Sono i risultati di una prima breve survey condotta tra i membri dell’Advisory Board e del Comitato Scientifico di Noema.[ENG] In the last fifteen years social networks, smartphones, biotechnologies, 11 September and the financialisation of economy are the five factors with the greatest effect in the relationships among technology, society, science and culture. These are the first conclusions of survey conducted among the members of the Advisory Board and of the Scientific Committee of Noema.

This survey paves the way to a wider analysis which will take place online starting from April 15th for two weeks, which will involve the whole public of the magazine.

On the occasion of the magazine’s fifteenth anniversary, Noema asked some of the personalities who collaborate with the magazine for indicating which ideas, events or objects they consider most influential in the relationships among science, innovation, technology and culture. The results of the interviews show that, over the period considered, new technologies have deeply transformed the codes used by human beings. In the first place the communication’s ones, increasingly pushing both towards globalization and disintermediation through social networks and in the direction of an even greater pervasiveness through smartphones, which allow people to be always on. Biotechnologies go on in expanding human capabilities modifying the natural codes, pushing onward the ability of creating and transforming the living systems.

Finally, according to the same survey, two events have deeply changed the contemporary society: the tragedy of September 11, 2001, and the financialisation of economy. The first one has lead to the limitation of some individual freedoms and privacy for security reasons; the second one has lead to a strong reduction of the industrial activities in advanced capitalist countries, and to the worse economic crisis in the world history since 1929, with a fall of employments and a growing job insecurity.

By the end of April we will see if these results will be confirmed by Noema‘s readers or if new elements will emerge.

This survey is one of the many initiatives that in the last 15 years have seen the direct involvement of the magazine’s readers in debates about the topics which have mostly characterized the evolution of contemporary societies. In Italy Noema is one of the most long-lived and influential online magazines on the relationships among technology, science and society; and on the effects that they have on communication, art and on the many disciplines derived from science, like Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Life, Internet of Things, Biotechnologies, Genetics and Robotics. The magazine publishes, in different languages, texts of authors whose work is fundamental in reflecting about contemporary issues (they are listed in the authors’ list here).

Noema was born from an idea of Pier Luigi Capucci and is online since March 2000. Its roots date back to an experience of the early 90’s, when a small group at the University of Bologna created NetMagazine, the first online magazine in Italy.

In the last 15 years Noema has started many projects, from didactics to publishing, to journalism, to Open Source and art. The most relevant among them, for their innovativeness and significance, are FiveWordsForTheFuture, to help people in understanding the meaning of innovation, recognize the “new” and imagine the future as a possible and near time. <mediaversi>, a book series on the relationships among media, technologies and society in its fundamental manifestations: culture, representation, communication, media and forms of expression. And the e.lab (e-learning.lab), born in 2002 as a collaborative platform to support education, created for universities and academies to share material, face with students and improve teaching.

Therefore, Noema is a key magazine in the analysis of the cultural systems’ transformation, which keeps on in exploring and monitoring the society’s evolution thanks to its net of authors.

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About me

I am a scholar in the media studies and the relationships among arts, sciences, technology and culture. I have been professor at the Universities of Rome “La Sapienza”, Bologna, Florence, SUPSI – University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, Urbino, and at the Fine Arts Academies of Carrara, NABA Milan, LABA Rimini and Quasar Rome. Currently I am a teacher at the Fine Arts Academy of Urbino and at the University of Udine (Dept. of Mathematics, Computer and Physics Sciences). From 2008 to 2013 I have been a supervisor, and from 2013 to 2018 I have been the Director of Studies of the T-Node Ph.D. Research Program of the Planetary Collegium, University of Plymouth.
I have internationally published more than 350 texts, essays and papers in books, magazines and conference proceedings. I have organized exhibitions, symposia, managed projects and participated to conferences worldwide.
I published the books "Realtà del virtuale. Rappresentazioni tecnologiche, comunicazione, arte" (Reality of the virtual. Techno-representations, communication, art), 1993 (also as an eBook), on virtual technologies and the relationships between culture and sensorial representations;" Il corpo tecnologico. L’influenza delle tecnologie sul corpo e sulle sue facoltà" (The technological body. Technologies’ influence on the body and its faculties), 1994, on the impact of technologies on the human body; "Arte e tecnologie. Comunicazione estetica e tecnoscienze" (Art and technologies. Aesthetic communication and technosciences), 1996 (also as an eBook), about art, sciences and technologies. I co-curated the books "The New and History", 2018, about the relationships among the “new”, innovation, history and cultural heritage, as well as the proceedings of art*science/Leonardo 50, an International conference he co-organized; and "Arte e complessità" (Art and Complexity), 2018, about the art forms dealing with complexity.
In 1994 I founded and directed the first Italian online journal, "NetMagazine/MagNet", on the relationships between arts and technologies. In 2000 I started "Noema" (https://noemalab.eu), an online magazine and a series of projects about the interrelations and influences among culture, arts, sciences and technologies. Currently I am curating the three-year research project (2018-20) art*science - Art & Climate Change (https://artscience.online).